[Public-List] Cruising...

[Gordon Laco]

So there we were on Friday morning… the usual tornado that are my business ventures seemed under control… so we decided to make it a long weekend and escape up the coast in the boat.

We loaded up with ice, food, treats and a ginger beer called ‘Crabby’s’ we’ve become addicted to.

Severn Sound was under dead calm conditions so we motored away without remorse about not sailing.  At 5.8 knots we got up to our favourite anchorage in 2.5 hours.   Ya, it’s not sailing, but on the other hand serious lounging at anchor got under way with a minimum of delay.

We were delighted to find the anchorage had only three other boats in it… one of them a monstrous houseboat who for no good reason I assumed would be noisy and objectionable.  As it turned out the problem was not the pleasant people in that contraption, rather it was what seemed to be a charter excursion by a bunch of co-workers.  Loud, increasingly drunken, finally abusive toward each other, they were like a spoof on office politics, and we heard every word as they were shouted over the pounding disco music (who choses to listen to that crap anymore?)

At one point a young woman in a bikini set off on a stand-up paddle board… she was pursued by a chubby older fellow clearly trying to impress her that he could still do cool stuff.  On the way back to their boat, (she didn’t slow to let him catch up) he fell off and surfaced spluttering and cursing that he’d lost his glasses.  His colleagues showed no interest in his distress… so I called over that we had a diving mask he could borrow if he wanted to try to look for them.  I also called that the water is 12 feet deep.   He declined.

Eventually the hot sun and the booze beat their spirits down as the afternoon progressed.  They all went below decks where we could hear the babble continuing.  The bikini girl, presumably wanting privacy from her colleagues, came out on deck and treated us to the spectacle of her removing her bathing suit and putting on street clothes.  I guess she forgot there were other boats around.

The good part was that we figured eleven people couldn’t sleep in a trawler that size… so sure enough, at about 4pm, they started the procedure of deflating their various beach toy floats and hoisting in their RHIB, then their anchor.  As they passed us departing, the skipper waved to me with an expression clearly indicating ‘I’m sorry’.   Oh well.

Quiet descended, the family of beaver that live in the bay came out and did their thing, the ravens emerged from the forest, a beautiful loon appeared and fished for its supper, after which it lolled about. We had supper, then turned in after a sunset row around the cove.  Nice.

Saturday we had a big breakfast and decided we’d just stay put, the place being so nice.  It poured rain for a few hours so it was nice sitting in our bunks reading and sipping coffee.  After lunch the rain stopped and we emerged to sail our dinghy around - we really enjoy that.   The dink is a Boston Whaler Squall which is fairly horrible to tow but marvellous to row and sail.  It came with a Sunfish-style lateen rig, but I replaced that with the rig from an Optimist dinghy.  Yes, it’s a little underpowered with two adults plus the weight of the boat, but the balance is much better and the rig stows in the portside bunk up forward.   

Friends came by to visit, supper came and went (bbq pork chops with rice and red peppers…) After supper we were visited by the famous giant snapping turtle people have been seeing in this cove for decades.  It looks like a monster but meekly parks itself alongside and awaits treats. Last summer he had a mussel clamped on one of his toenails, which ornament apparently didn’t bother him at all.  This year the decoration is gone.  We fed it bits of ham, but a funny thing happened.  A large bass has apparently learned the game and hovered beneath the turtle, darting up to snatch the treat  and flash away before the turtle could react.  The turtle was like a ponderous tank swivelling too slowly each time… it kept looking for the treat after the fish was in and out and back underneath him.  Funny.  The fish got more than he did.

Sunday morning we packed up after breakfast and motored down to the passage at Minnicognashene and so out into the Sound.  We uncorked the rig and beat south in a solid breeze which eventually backed enough to allow us to gallop into Midland with our sheets eased a bit… glorious.

I love cruising...

Gordon Laco
#426 Surprise